My intern, Tyler, used a deposit transfer function on me. No matter how much money I had in my account, the balance would always revert to fifty dollars.
In my last life, all I dreamed of was buying my own apartment near the office.
Until I finally saved up half a million dollars for a down payment.
When I swiped my card, the real estate agent told me I had insufficient funds.
I checked my transaction history, confronted the bank, reported it to the police, but everyone dismissed me as crazy.
Because my bank statements showed every single transaction clearly.
But these were expenses I, who lived frugally, had never made!
I told my colleagues about it, and to my surprise, after seeing my bank statements,
a few malicious male colleagues actually taunted me:
“Liam frequently spends thousands at a certain bar in the middle of the night! That price perfectly matches a full night with a model!”
Faced with such misunderstandings, no matter how much I explained, it was useless.
I anonymously posted about it online. Netizens all commented that I was making things up to grab attention for selling products;
only one comment advised me to observe my surroundings and see if anyone else’s spending matched my statements.
Through careful observation, I indeed discovered that Tyler, the new intern in our department, would cause a deduction from my card every time he made a purchase.
Even buying a drink would immediately show up.
After identifying my target, I confronted Tyler directly, only to be mocked. He said I was reckless with my money, and trying to blame others for my inability to save was delusional.
He even ganged up with company colleagues and had me committed to a mental institution.
After two years in the hospital, unable to endure the torment, I finally found an opportunity to escape and jumped into a river to commit suicide.
Unexpectedly, when I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day before I was going to buy the apartment.
1
Reborn, the first thing I did was open my banking app to check my balance.
Sure enough, only fifty bucks remained.
I quickly pieced together the situation. My money,
had already been transferred to Tyler’s account through some unknown means he possessed.
I wanted nothing more than to drag Tyler down with me, but in my previous life, after my death,
seeing my parents’ hair turn white overnight, I regretted it.
If I acted impulsively like before, I would only repeat the same mistakes.
Just then, Ms. Miller, our department manager, called me over.
“Liam, this order might be a bit tricky, but the commission is five thousand dollars! Don’t say I didn’t look out for you, honey!”
My throat tightened, and I swallowed hard, almost instinctively.
Five thousand dollars. Enough for a month’s rent, with a good chunk left over.
But I still refused.
“Thanks, Ms. Miller. But for the next month, I don’t want to take any orders.”
Ignoring Ms. Miller’s stunned expression, I turned and walked out of the office.
Because of the poor soundproofing, the colleagues outside had already heard everything.
Immediately, discussions erupted.
“Liam’s the company’s sales champion! He used to fight for every order, but he just refused one today?”
“Not just today, didn’t you hear him say he wouldn’t take any for the next month?!”
Disregarding the gossip around me, I opened my food delivery app,
ordered the largest iced americano, and then deducted the last fifty dollars from my card.
You should know, in my previous life, I couldn’t even bring myself to buy a dollar coffee from the vending machine.
To build a life for myself in this impossibly expensive city, I worked myself to the bone, sacrificing everything.
Every day, I’d stay up until two or three in the morning doing client follow-ups, wake up before dawn, and get packed like a sardine on the subway for two grueling hours, just to punch in on time.
One late clock-in meant a fifty-dollar deduction. That was nearly a week’s worth of food for me.
I dreamed of buying my own apartment near the office, even if it was just a small studio.
Every payday, I’d only keep three hundred dollars for living expenses.
The rest went straight into my bank account.
But I never imagined that the half a million dollars I desperately saved for a down payment would end up in someone else’s pocket!
Just then, the office door was flung open.
“Guys! Lunch is on me!”
Tyler’s boisterous voice instantly filled the room.
His face was flushed with excitement, a brand-new Swiss watch glinting on his wrist, looking like a lottery winner who’d just hit big.
“Let’s go to The Grand Hotel! Order whatever you want!”
The office erupted, and colleagues swarmed around him.
“Tyler, did you strike it rich?”
“Who’s your sugar daddy?”
I didn’t move, just held my coffee, my eyes cold as I watched him.
Because I knew, he was spending *my* money.
Tyler, surrounded by the crowd, waved his hand, feigning modesty:
“Oh, you know, just bought a lottery ticket a couple of days ago, won a small prize.”
A nosy colleague immediately pressed him: “How much did you win?”
2
Tyler glanced at me, a smug smile playing on his lips.
“Not much,” he said nonchalantly, “just a few hundred thousand.”
A collective gasp echoed through the office.
A few hundred thousand was an astronomical sum for us, who barely made five figures a month.
But I noticed that from the moment Tyler entered, his gaze kept drifting towards me, purposefully.
As if he was observing a lab rat’s reaction.
He was watching to see if I had already discovered that my bank card was now useless.
I suppressed the hatred churning in my gut, biting back the questions that almost burst from my lips.
For now, I couldn’t tip him off.
I stood up, forcing a perfectly natural smile, even a hint of envy.
“Tyler, congratulations! I’ve got to bask in your good fortune.”
Seeing my composed demeanor, a flicker of surprise crossed Tyler’s eyes, then he subtly let out a sigh of relief, clearly feeling guilty.
He probably thought I hadn’t noticed the anomaly in my savings yet.
As lunchtime approached, Kyle, who sat next to me, suddenly leaned over.
“Liam, didn’t you say you’d go house-hunting once you had enough for the down payment? When are you going? I’ll go with you.”
At the mention of the apartment, I clenched my fists tightly, my nails almost digging into my flesh.
But I quickly relaxed them, maintaining a calm expression.
“No rush,” I said.
“I lost my ID a couple of days ago, and it takes time to replace it. Besides, house prices are dropping so fast now, I might as well wait and see.”
The words were barely out of my mouth when I felt a gaze land on me again.
It was Tyler.
He was watching me again, his eyes betraying a hint of unconcealed glee.
Tyler had only been an intern at the company for two months. He was five foot seven, weighed 180 pounds, had an ordinary face, and ranked last in sales performance.
In our sales department, where looks and业绩 mattered, he should have been at the bottom of the food chain.
But in my previous life, it was him who used my half a million dollars, first to get full-body liposuction, then plastic surgery.
He transformed himself into a charismatic, handsome golden boy that everyone adored.
It was also him who used my money to buy loyalty, colluding with a few female colleagues to have me committed to a mental institution, citing my “mental instability.”
Recalling the two years of torment in that mental institution, I took another deep breath to calm myself.
At noon, Tyler took us to The Grand Hotel for lunch, grandly telling us to order whatever we wanted.
I didn’t hold back. I opened the menu and pointed directly to the most expensive pages.
“King crab, the biggest one.”
“Australian lobster sashimi.”
“And this, the French foie gras.”
“A bird’s nest soup for everyone, please.”
With each dish I ordered, the expressions of my colleagues grew more entertaining.
Kyle nudged my arm, whispering, “Liam, isn’t this… a bit too wasteful?”
I smiled at him, saying nothing.
Spending my own money, how could it be called wasteful?
Tyler’s cheek twitched, but in front of everyone, he could only force a smile.
“It’s fine, Liam’s our sales champion, he’s worked so hard, he deserves to eat well and recharge.”
He grinned brightly.
“He still has to eat more and work harder in the future, to create more业绩 for our department!”
Before I could speak, a colleague next to me chimed in:
“Oh, Tyler, you weren’t here this morning, so you didn’t know. Liam just told Ms. Miller that he’s stopping all his orders for the next month.”
The air instantly went quiet.
I leisurely wiped the corner of my mouth with a napkin and looked up at Tyler.
The smile on his face froze, inch by inch.
“What did you say?”
He glared at me, his voice sharp as he yelled:
“Liam, why are you stopping orders?”
“What do you mean by this?”
3
I met Tyler’s almost furious gaze and slowly curved my lips.
“Why are you so agitated that I’m stopping orders?”
The colleagues around us also exchanged glances, their eyes burning with gossip.
“Yeah, Tyler,” Kyle couldn’t help but speak up, “Liam himself isn’t worried, why are you reacting so strongly?”
“Exactly, anyone would think you were the one who stopped orders.”
The collective whispers were like cold water, instantly snapping Tyler out of his outburst.
The ferocity on his face rapidly faded, replaced by a forced expression of extreme concern.
“I… I’m just worried about Liam, that’s all!”
He raised his voice, as if to sound more sincere.
“Didn’t you say you were only a few orders away from your down payment? The Grandview Towers orders are so hard to get, stopping now means losing out on so much money! I’m just feeling bad for you!”
He looked on the verge of tears, acting as if it were real.
I smiled.
“I’m tired, I want to rest.”
I casually picked up a spot prawn, slowly peeling its shell.
“Besides,” I paused, looking up at him, my gaze pure and harmless, “didn’t you just win a big lottery prize? Hundreds of thousands, right? What if I really am a bit short on my down payment, you… wouldn’t refuse to lend me some, would you?”
The air froze again.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Tyler.
The color drained from his face instantly, his lips trembling, unable to utter a single word.
I put the peeled shrimp meat into my mouth, slowly adding.
“Our generous Tyler, he’d definitely help, right?”
He was put on the spot, scorched by everyone’s gaze, and finally, he squeezed out a few words, almost through gritted teeth.
“Of… of course I would.”
As if afraid I would actually ask, he immediately added, “But, I didn’t win that much, it’s just… just pocket money.”
I looked at the new Celine short-sleeved shirt he was wearing, the globally limited Swiss watch on his wrist, and this table full of lavish dishes that could feed an ordinary person for half a year.
Indeed.
My half a million dollars wouldn’t even last him a few days at this rate.
I thoroughly enjoyed that meal.
Before leaving, I asked the waiter to pack up all the untouched king crab and lobster.
A few colleagues whispered behind my back.
“Oh my God, taking leftovers, that’s so tacky, isn’t it?”
“Seriously, like he’s never eaten before, so embarrassing.”
I heard them but pretended not to, just smiling sweetly at Tyler.
“Tyler, look how much you’ve spent. All these good things, it would be such a waste not to take them. I’ll take them home to eat, you don’t mind, do you?”
Tyler’s face was a kaleidoscope of emotions.
But in front of everyone, he could only grit his teeth and nod.
“No… I don’t mind.”
Back at the company, I nonchalantly placed the packed containers into the communal fridge, completely ignoring the strange looks from my colleagues.
In the afternoon, I knocked on the door of Ms. Davis’s office.
“Ms. Davis, I’d like to advance half a month’s salary.”
Ms. Davis looked up at me: “By regulation, it requires a manager’s signature, and it’s all processed at the end of the month.”
I handed her a pre-prepared application form, already signed.
“The manager approved it.”
“And, I don’t want a bank transfer.”
“Cash only.”
If money in my card vanished as if by magic, then cash should be safe, right?
An hour later, clutching a hefty stack of bills in an envelope, I returned to my cubicle.
This was my base salary for the current month and part of last month’s commission, fifteen thousand dollars.
I tucked the envelope into the deepest compartment of my bag, zipping it shut.
In my previous life, it was from that half a million that I slowly plunged into the abyss.
In this life, I would climb back up from this fifteen thousand.
But I hadn’t even settled into my seat, not even five minutes had passed.
My right eye began to twitch uncontrollably, a sudden, alarming flutter.
*Thump, thump, thump.*
Each twitch more violent than the last.
A deeply ominous premonition instantly gripped my heart!
I quickly unzipped my bag, reaching for that compartment—
It was empty!
The envelope was still there, but the thick stack of cash inside had vanished!
My blood ran cold instantly, every hair on my body standing on end.
I hadn’t realized that the deposit transfer method Tyler used on me had no limits whatsoever!
Was he trying to cut off all my escape routes?
I looked at Tyler not far away, a flicker of glee on his face.
I clenched my fists tightly. Good thing I’d already thought of a way to break this cycle!
4
Five minutes later, I had just returned to the office from the restroom when the police arrived.
Amidst everyone’s stunned expressions, I stepped forward directly.
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